Hats off to the folk behind Renewable Newstead who earlier this year signed an historic agreement with the Victorian network operator Powercor to support its transition to 100 per cent renewable, locally generated energy. The Memorandum of Understanding is the first major step for Renewable Newstead towards realising its plan of making the regional Victorian town 100 per cent renewable by 2021 via a purpose built community-scale grid.

According to the MOU with Newstead, Powercor will support the town by providing industry know-how on such matters as the energy load profile, grid stability and reliability, financial modelling, and other technical advice. The agreement comes one year after the Victorian government provided $200,000 in grant funding to the Newstead group for regional community-led clean energy development.